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Stitch Anyone?

We are all finding ways to amuse ourselves during this crazy time and perhaps also avoid doing housework. element15 members are no exception:

Marie has been finding inspiration in the TextileArtist.org Community Stitch Challenge. She used some pieces of fabric she had dyed using flour paste to make this beautiful cube, inspired by the work of textile artist, Richard McVetis.

Elaine may have been making too many face masks! Her obsession has led her to make a felt mask that looks remarkably like her dog, Milly!

  • The real Milly

I hope Elaine isn’t planning on wearing it! Here are some of the other, more practical, face masks she has made, in a beautiful array of luxurious fabrics. Well done Elaine.

Eimear seems to be a bit obsessed with loo rolls. Besides buying blue toilet paper because there was nothing more suitable in the shop, she is now working on a blue textile roll! Taking inspiration from a tutorial on YouTube by Anne Brooke, textile artist, Eimear is using scraps and hand stitch to work on this soothing exercise. The fact that it can be achieved without taking out the sewing machine (and whilst watching the TV) is a bonus. I am not sure it will take her mind off the blue toilet roll though!

Catherine Dowling is branching out (excuse the pun!) into stitch work and applique on some dyed fabric from the recent dying session.

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Creatively staying at home

We hope that you are well and keeping safe.

I thought being confined to home would be a great time for creativity – drawing, painting, sewing, planning and thinking about making. But, what is it about this enforced confinement that has robbed us (well, me at least) of the ability to create. I started out full of enthusiasm. I started tidying my stash of fabrics, sorting dyed and prepared fabrics from scraps and plains. I started doing the same for papers, prepared and those yet to be used. I started sorting pens and paints and glues and mediums. I started creating spaces for storing things properly. I started sketching my surroundings in a new sketchbook and joined online textile challenges. You may have noticed a common thread here …. I started!!

Unfortunately, I haven’t finished any of the aforementioned tasks to my satisfaction so now I have a very untidy workspace and have lost the drive to complete !!

But all is not lost. I have managed to join with many element15 members in making face masks to donate to carers, vunerable members of our community and those living in very crowded conditions without the ability to completely self isolate. Over 65 masks were made in 24 hours.

Obviously, these are not medical grade face masks but they are very useful for those caring for elderly or at risk family members as they can be washed at a high temperature and reused. They are made from two layers of close weave cotton fabric. Some are made with an inside opening where a PPE disposable filter could be fitted. Some have elastic loops to go around the ears and others have ties – it all depends on what we have in our stash!

So, all that sorting of the stash was not in vain – at least I could find the nice cotton fabrics and bias binding to begin the mask making. Thanks to Elaine and Catherine for starting the ball rolling.

Facemasks, but not as you know them. Please excuse the layout of these images but WordPress was not cooperating with me today!